Significant Soil

From Jennifer L. Holberg

I don’t think I’m going to be able to plant a garden this year—which bums me out. But too much travel means
 I’ll not be at home to help things take root. Guess it’s time to give the soil a rest—and shop at the farmers’ market.

Still, I’m reassured by what T.S Eliot observes in the Four Quartets: that the mark of success, the way to find contentment, is to “nourish the life of significant soil.” In other words, cultivating a life characterized by really good metaphorical dirt, working to make the ecosystem of one’s life a richer, more vibrant environment. This isn’t a grand or fancy aspiration—but it is absolutely vital: how am I contributing to a climate where things will grow and thrive? Or am I—through over-commitment and stress, bitterness or anger—making it less productive? Am I helping things grow in my own life and in others? That is, is my presence adding nutrients or leaching them away? After all, as my favorite literary Eliot, George Eliot, observes ““What do we live for except to make life less difficult for each other." 

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